Most Epic Cupcake Decorating Party

Okay... those of you that were here know this happened two years ago, but it was, by far, the most epic birthday party Hannah has had to date.  Never mind that she fire hooped that weekend for the first time in the backyard in front of half the town... what does that compare to cupcakes?

Anyway... As I always do, I asked Hannah what kind of birthday party she wanted and she replied, "How about a cupcake decorating party?"

This was completely my fault, as I had been on a cupcake making kick for a while that spring (as evidenced by the gift boxes of cupcakes I would drop off in our neighbors' kitchens because NO family should have to eat 48 cupcakes a day).  So how did I manage to have a cupcake decorating party for a dozen 8ish year olds (some guests were a few years younger and some a few years older)?

Piece of cake! (Literally)
We had invited 10 kids (her entire class in school plus a few girls from the grade below and some family friends) but planned for their siblings as well.  Hey, it's a small town! It's a good thing we planned for more, because when the older brothers and sisters of our guests found out what we were doing, they decided to stay and join us.  No problem!!!
I prepped it all the day before, because who likes old cupcakes?  I'm sure you could freeze them if you had room (I do now, thanks to the commercial freezer I got for Mother's Day, but didn't have it back then).  I know I needed at least 3 vanilla and 3 chocolate for each kid.  I baked 100 of each... This is not too overwhelming because that's just a double batch of a 2 layer cake recipe.  The chocolate cupcake was my go to vegan one I have used for years, long before I was a vegan, and is based on an old Betty Crocker recipe used during wartime because it uses no butter or eggs.  The vanilla one had good old organic butter and milk, and local eggs.

Here are some of them cooling.  Notice I did not overfill them.  The kids were going to decorate them themselves and you know kids love frosting!

Speaking of frosting.... this is were the WORK came in.

My plan was to teach the kids 6 different cupcakes, half vanilla based, half chocolate.  For frosting prep, I needed a batch of each of the following...

Cream Cheese, Maple, Lemon, Peanut Butter, Chocolate, and Mint.  

Thank goodness for my KitchenAid mixer!

Then I portioned about 1/3 cup of each frosting into sandwich sized baggies. Make sure they are sealed SHUT!

Toppings...

Homemade Strawberry Jam, Cinnamon Powdered Sugar, Organic Yellow Decorating Sugar, Milk Chocolate Chips, Crushed Newman O's (organic Oreos), Organic Gummy Worms, and Mini Dark Chocolate Chips

I portioned "toppings" into little one ounce serving cups with lids that my school cafeteria ladies gave me (along with some little wooden spoons). I put these individually in a white paper bag with the frostings and placed in the fridge overnight.  I sorted the cupcakes into these cute little 6 pack cupcake boxes I had found on super clearance after Easter that year.  So CUTE and PERFECT!!! (especially for under 20 cents each!) 

Step by Step

When the time came for the decorating activity, after much hula hooping, swinging, and running around acting like 8 year olds, each kid got a "kit". One paper bag filled with six little baggies of frosting and their toppings, and a box of cupcakes.

I had several pairs of scissors on the table and cups with little wooden ice cream spoons for the kids to cut the corner of their frosting bags (with a model and adults nearby) and spread their toppings. We were READY! (My white carpet, however, was not ready for this onslaught of frosting, cake crumbs, and toppings.)

Cupcakes!!!

1. Strawberry Cheesecake ~ Vanilla cupcake with cream cheese frosting, topped with strawberry jam.

2. French Toast ~ Vanilla cupcake with maple frosting, topped with cinnamon powdered sugar.

 (This was definitely the crowd pleaser!)

3. Lemonade ~ Vanilla cupcake with lemon frosting and yellow sugar (they could have also done a strawberry lemonade by adding a dollop of that jam).

4. Peanut Butter Cup ~ Chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting and milk chocolate chips.

5. Dirt ~ Chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting, crushed cookies, and gummy worms.

6. Mint Chocolate Chip ~ Chocolate cupcake with mint frosting and mini chocolate chips.

So now, all we needed was a CAKE!!!!

Each of the party guests chose one more cupcake from the "extras" table and used the leftover frostings and toppings to create the most EPIC cupcake ever to place on the cake stand!  Super fun! We placed a candle in Hannah's creation, sang "Happy Birthday", and everybody ate their cake.  

Here's the birthday girl packing up her finished lemonade cupcake.

Some of the finished boxes of cupcakes ready to go home with the kids!

My only regret with doing this birthday party is that I did not take nearly enough pictures!